Search form

TRENDING:

Policy expert: The next Flint could be anywhere in the US

Policy expert Michele Nellenbach issued a warning on water infrastructure in the U.S. on Wednesday, saying a crisis like the one in Flint, Mich. could happen anywhere in the country.

"The unfortunate part about the water infrastructure is that people don't see it. It's underground. So until you have like a water main break that disrupts traffic, people don't think about it," Nellenbach, director of strategic initiatives at the Bipartisan Policy Center, told Hill.TV's Krystal Ball and Ned Ryun on "Rising."

"In some ways on water, we're kind of victims of our own success," she added. "We have successfully treated drinking water for decades but those systems are aging and we're not keeping up. So the next Flint could be really anywhere in the country."

The city of Flint has been battling a water crisis since 2014, when its water supply was switched from Lake Huron to the Flint River.

Lead then seeped into the drinking water from Flint's pipes.

The state of Michigan announced in April that the water in the city was safe to drink and that it would stop delivering free bottled water to residents.

The Senate in May unanimously approved its own its bipartisan water infrastructure bill, which calls on the National Academy of Sciences to draft reports on how the Army Corps of Engineers can improve transparency to work with stakeholders, Congress and local governments.

— Julia Manchester

Featured Clips

An attorney representing a group of landowners suing over the President Trump's national emergency declaration said Thursday that some could lose their homes or the ability to access their property if a wall goes up on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Former acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) John Sandweg on Thursday said that the border wall is not a “moral issue,” but rather an “important tool” to help with border security.